Your first cycle: The Guide

One of the most asked questions that we have to answer is: “what would be a good first cycle?”… and the answer will always be: “depends”.

First of all always take in mind that deciding to take the big step and using PEDs involves some risks, and its never as beautiful or easy as your gym dealer or friendly influencer tells you about,
this guide has everything i would love to have known before doing my first cycle.

Preparation

  1. Rule number one, always buy everything you need before starting a cycle, a lot of people make the mistake of ordering just tiny bits of their whole cycle, this is a big mistake, problems can always happened and you may end up without a key piece of your cycle.
  2. Get your bloodwork done, a lot of people make the mistake of only doing bloodwork AFTER the cycle, that's “no bueno” as Arnold would say, you always need to have a point of reference to see what values have gone bad during the cycle, also you can use this to asses how long it takes you to recover. I will make a full bloodwork guide,  but for now i will advice the following: “hematocrit, lipids, kidney, inflammation markers, liver markers, hormonal levels (all the Test values, estrogen, prolactin, cortisol, T3, T4…).
  3. Learn how to properly inject, take your time, watch a few Youtube videos, you can always mix different oils but never oils with something like bacteriostatic water or B12. Rotate injections spots to avoid scar tissue (formation of IM scars due to too many injections on the same spot), I always advise injecting into the glutes.


Areas for intramuscular injections

Ventrogluteal muscle of the hip

Always clean the place with alcohol swabs, before and after the injection.

Injection frequency

The frequency of steroid injections can significantly impact hormonal levels in the body, and this is one of the most important piece of information i wish that i got before using steroids for the first time. When using anabolic steroids for performance enhancement or bodybuilding, understanding how injection frequency affects hormonal stability and overall efficacy is crucial. Here’s a detailed look at this aspect:
  1. Half-Life and Ester Types: Different steroids have varying half-lives determined largely by their ester. For instance, some steroids are designed to be slow-releasing with longer half-lives, requiring less frequent injections (e.g., once a week), while others with shorter half-lives might need injections every other day or daily.
  2. Hormonal Fluctuations: Inconsistent or infrequent injections can lead to hormonal fluctuations. These fluctuations can be detrimental, causing side effects like mood swings, altered libido, and physical changes. Regular and consistent injections, as per the half-life of the steroid, help maintain stable hormone levels, reducing the risk of such side effects.
  3. Peak and Trough Levels: With each injection, steroid levels peak and then gradually decline. The goal is to inject at a frequency that maintains hormone levels above a certain threshold without causing extreme peaks and troughs. This balance is crucial for achieving desired physical results while minimizing side effects.
  4. Individual Response: It’s important to note that individuals respond differently to steroids. Factors like age, genetics, overall health, and specific goals play a role in how one’s body reacts to different injection frequencies.
So… after all this information, what would i do? I would choose a long ester, like Testosterone or Cypionate and injected it EOD (Every Other Day), so for example Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. This pinning schedule would avoid a lot of side effects caused by hormonal fluctuations, like acne or gyno.

The Cycle

A beginner cycle is usually made of one or two compounds:

Testosterone

Testosterone is KING, Testosterone is the main hormone of the male human body, side effects are low, its cheap and it has great effects… its the perfect PED for everyone.
A newbie can use 250mg of Testosterone per week and will see quite a lot of results, and probably can titrate up to 500mg per week without issues, i always recommend to use the maximum effective dose without side effects, being your first cycle always increase the dose slowly and check for any side effects.

Orals

I think that orals aren’t necessary for a first cycle, but if you want to kickstart your cycle with one, or end it with one I will say which ones are more newbie friendly… 

SARMs: a lot of SARMs are friendly for first time users, at certain dosages they lack of most side effects, for example Ostarine can be taken around 20-30mg per day, Lingandrol from 5-20mg per day, RAD-140 is my favorite one here and can be taken up to 50mg per day without “issues”.

Oral Steroids: there are a few oral steroids that i would use as a first time user, Oxandrolone is really user-friendly and can be taken up to 50mg per day, Anadrol contrary to what a lot of people think its really safe, and it has a ton of data supporting its use in young kids or cancer patients, 25-50mg per day can be used, finally something like Winstrol at 20-30mg per day can be used.

SERMs and AI: estrogen can always cause problems during the cycle, for example gyno (we have articles about that), acne, oily skin… I don’t think 99.9% of the population will have estrogen problems with the dosages stated above and following the injection guidelines I made, but in case and just to be safe, everyone can have a box of tamoxifen, if you feel gyno symptoms 10mg of tamoxifen per day until the symptoms go away will do the trick.

Health aids: Telmisartan is a great tool that will help to have healthy blood pressure levels, healthy cholesterol levels, healthy hematocrit levels, healthy blood sugar levels… basically everything, 40mg per day will work. This is not necessary but I wish i learned to use it since the beginning.

IMPORTANT: SARMs will cause liver stress, Oral steroids are liver toxic, for liver stress I would recommend taking 1200mg of NAC per day, for Oral steroids NAC doesnt have a direct positive effect (but it has an indirect one since its a gluthation precursor), damage is caused by bile acids on your liver, that's why I recommend taking TUDCA, around 300-600mg will help.

Side Note 1: i chose low oral dosages to avoid serious liver problems to first time users, but i think that teaching how to counteract this side effects will always be good.

Side Note 2: this orals at the dosages stated above can be taken daily up to 8 weeks, i recommend splitting the dosages trough the day and take it with meals. The orals can be taken to kickstart they cycle, since as they lack from any ester attached the effects are immediate, or it can be taken on the last weeks of the cycle, for example you can start taking it 6 weeks before finishing the cycle, and after the last injection keep taking the orals for two extra weeks, so you go straight to the PCT.

Duration

When it comes to duration i will always say the same…. The longer the cycle, the safest it will be, its better to do a low dose longer cycle than a shorter one with higher doses, both for health and for gaining muscle mass.

I usually prefer the cycles to last around 12 weeks, sometimes up to 16 weeks.

Keep in mind that after this you will have to wait 2 extra weeks before starting the PCT and 4 weeks of PCT, so add 6 weeks of extra time to the cycle.

The PCT

PCT means: “Post Cycle Therapy”, people usually have the misconception that you need to do a PCT to recover your hormonal axis (basically recovering your suppressed hormonal levels to the levels you had before the cycle), this is a myth, your body will recover its original levels at the same speed, with or without a PCT.

In that case… why should i need one? Its simple, a PCT mimics how your body “feels” normally, so its a simple way of feeling like a normal person and not like a grandpa until your hormonal levels have been recovered to baseline levels.

A PCT is usually consists of Clomid, and its taken at 50mg per day, for 4 weeks, an important thing is that you wont start recovering until your system is clean of steroids, that means you will have to wait until the half life of the longest ester attached steroid has passed a few times, in this case being testosterone Enanthate or Cypionate around 21 days should do the trick… if you don't want to wait that long you can always stop injecting sooner and use orals the last weeks of the cycle, since the half life of the orals are a few hours or a day you can start the PCT the day after the last oral intake.

Post PCT blooodwork.

A couple weeks after the PCT you should get your bloodwork done and compare it with the bloodwork from your previous cycle.

What side effects can be expected?

With a simple cycle like this it would be difficult to have serious side effects, but… here you have the possible ones.

Acne (depends A LOT on genetics), oily skin (depends A LOT on genetics), Gyno (depends A LOT on genetics, can be fixed with 10mg of tamoxifen), liver problems if you sure using orals (I stated how to fix it), libido fluctuations (you can become ultra horny or in some strange cases have a lower libido), high blood pressure (since we aren't dealing with a serious cycle, something as simple as taking 1 gram of grape seed extract and 5-8 grams of L-Citruline will completely lower it and give you a great pump, 40mg of Telmisartan can also help), kidney problems (can be avoided/neutralized/diminised by lowering blood pressure and using Telmisartan), high cholesterol (can be fixed taking a good Omega 3 or Krill Oil supplement, also you can take Red Yeast Extract at 1200mg per day, split into two dosages to fix it), high hematocrit (can be fixed taking Telmisartan) heart problems (can be avoided/neutralized/diminised reducing blood pressure, cholesterol and high hematocrit and taking Telmisartan to avoid cardiovascular remodeling (in this case this shouldn’t be a problem).